


Below the Wire Practice

by phantasmicfish



Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV 2020)
Genre: AU, F/M, Julie and the Demons
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-06
Updated: 2021-03-06
Packaged: 2021-03-12 00:09:21
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,644
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29876121
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/phantasmicfish/pseuds/phantasmicfish
Summary: Luke gestures broadly from his horns to his toes. “We’re demons.Duh.“
Relationships: Julie Molina/Luke Patterson
Comments: 1
Kudos: 25





	Below the Wire Practice

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Third time’s a charm!

The wind that fills the room comes from nowhere. 

Julie’s been cleaning the studio for an hour - an hour spent sorting through her mom’s old boxes, dust-covered pictures and yellow-edged music sheets, polarized in a combination of nostalgia and depression that made tears prickle the corners of her eyes - and she shudders in surprise as it floods the room. Feels astonishment, fear, confusion, against the wild noise rolling through the cool, studio air.

Shock lodges Julie’s scream in her throat. Around her, tinted music sheets take flight like birds, dust scatters with the vehemence of micro-insects. Julie presses herself against the wall, all while the snarling, hissing wind grows progressively louder, cooking her eardrums to a crisp. 

It’s only when the room inverts its pressure does she wonder, frantically, if this is _it,_ with the wind squeezing the air out of her lungs, ripping and pushing at her skin, and just as Julie _can’t breathe,_ it all stops - and a tangled mass of something lands on her floor. 

No, not something, three somethings, three dark, ominous somethings with gleaming eyes and sharp feathers and thin, wiry wings-

Julie screams.

-

“Who are you?” Julie demands, voice firm despite the quiver in her chest. The cross she grabbed is tight in her grip, the edges digging into her fingers as she hoists it at the three strangers in the room. At least her makeshift weapon seems to be doing the trick: they haven’t approached her; she supposes it’s keeping them at bay. 

One of the creatures, who now looks decidedly boyish, rubs his hands on his jeans. (His wings shift with him, twin silhouettes obscured in shadow - and Julie can’t, can’t focus on that right now.) “We’re, uh, demons,” he offers.

“But good demons!” The second one cuts in. “Not the bad, I-will-light your-hair-on-fire demons, although we _can_ do that-”

“Reggie, _don’t_ tell her that, jeez.”

“Why not?” Reggie says, affronted.

“Because she doesn’t need to know if we can light someone’s hair on fire! That’s not exactly a comforting thing to say-

“Basically,” the third one says, sliding in front of the first two, “we’re not gonna hurt you, we just got here, and we’re confused.”

Julie bites her lip at the flood of information, debilitating, tightens her grip on the cross. The demon boys - she’s now certain they are in fact that, at least in appearance - have horns. _Horns_. Somehow, Julie finds it in herself not to scream.

The third demon takes that as a good sign. He takes an opportunistic step forward, adding, “I’m Luke, by the way. That’s Reggie, and this is Alex.” He points to each of them with each introduction, and smiles. It’s a genuine, nice smile, tinged at the edges with hope. It makes Julie want to smile back, which is, which is,

Wrong. Or something. Folklore and religion and a plethora of myths has taught her she shouldn’t be smiling at demons, things Tia has lectured her about, so Julie pushes the cross more firmly in their direction for emphasis. “Okay,” she says roughly, “Great. Why are you here?”

Luke sighs. “We don’t know.”

Julie pushes the cross forward again. She’s not sure how she feels when Luke flinches, backs up a step, and quickly elaborates, “Seriously, we have no idea.” 

“Yeah,” Alex jumps in. “We just appeared in your studio, like last time. Or, I guess we were summoned here?”

“Well, I definitely didn’t summon you. So wherever you guys came from, you can go back there.” Julie says, edging towards the door. “I don’t need any demons randomly appearing in my mom’s studio.” With a final, decisive nod, she slips out the doors, slamming them close behind her.

-

The next hours pass arduously: Julie sits at the table with Carlos and Dad, picks at her dinner, pretending that the three, mythical strangers in her studio…. weren’t. Carlos scored a goal in soccer, recounts the experience with elaborate hand signals and flashy sounds that Julie only vaguely listens too; nods mootly along when Dad tells them he’s going to put up their house on the market. 

It is annoyingly easy to slip away from the table after they’ve finished eating. Flynn does not spontaneously show up at her doorstep, begging to hang out, and despite Julie’s prayers, no reason for her to stay presents itself, even after Julie washes all the pots and pans as a time-waster. So it’s with much resignation (and hesitation) that Julie plunges back into reality, down the winding path where the studio sits.

Although pure shock has ebbed away, Julie’s skin prickles with its remnants, making her jumpy and on edge. Wishing she had her cross, Julie yanks the doors apart, throws herself against the wall, and flicks on the lights. 

“Gah!”

From where they’re lying on the couch, Alex jerks, Luke smiles, and Reggie’s mouth falls open in an impressive _o._ Their wings have vanished, leaving smoke-colored feathers trailing the floor. 

Julie frowns, and steps further inside, despite the squirming in her stomach. However, it’s difficult to remain fearful when she sees the pile of pillows Reggie has amassed around him, structured in some type of fort. Annoyance lances up her spine. “I thought I told you guys to leave.” She says.

Guilty, Alex averts his gaze. “Yeah, you did.”

“So?” Julie prods, crossing her arms over her chest to clamp down her pity - pity she shouldn’t be feeling, since these demons _broke into her house_. “Go.”

There’s a pause; Alex exchanges a glance with Luke, who sits upright to face her, but doesn’t leave the couch. His eyes are hopeful but determined underneath their black gleam. “About that. We’d like to stay.” 

Julie opens her mouth to disagree, but Alex quickly continues Luke’s train of thought before she can say so. “It’s just that, we don’t have anywhere else to go. This studio has been our home for, well, forever, and demons don’t do well as nomads.” 

“Plus, it’s cold outside,” Reggie adds with a knowing nod, as if this was the concluding factor. 

Alex rolls his eyes, but Julie glances at Reggie, curious despite herself. “You don’t like the cold?”

Reggie shakes his head, but it’s Luke who verbalizes the answer, jumping to his feet and gesturing broadly from his head - _horns_ \- to his toes. “Demons, _duh_. We like heat.” 

Oh. 

_Oh._

“Right,” Julie says, nodding past her sudden unease. “That makes sense.” She doesn’t want to put _too_ much stock in Luke’s words, not sure she’s ready to face the implication behind them, so she shifts her attention to the three unfamiliar bags in the middle of the room. 

“What are those?”

“Oh!” Luke jumps up excitedly, runs over to the bags, and gives one a kick. It punts over to the side, and emits a _whoosh_ sound, like Luke kicked a couple pillows. “That’s our stuff. Clothes, mostly.”

“Clothes?”

“From the ‘90s.” Alex explains. “That’s the last time we were summoned here, in 1995.”

Julie’s eyes widen. “Wait. Someone summoned you _here_? To this studio? In 1995?”

“Yep, yep, and yep”

Balking under the influx of information and unsure which point to tackle first, Julie’s eyes widen. “Wow.” She settles on, “Who summoned you here?”

Alex scratches his neck, lips slipping into a frown. “It was-”

Luke’s eyes turn black. “No one,” he says, voice flat, laced with something tangible and heavy and foreign, Julie can feel the weight of it pressing against her chest. 

The lights overhead visibly flicker. Her skin prickles, in warning: this isn’t right, isn’t human, and she barely resists the shudder creeping up her spine. In an effort to diminish the darkness seeping rapidly into the room, Julie asks, “What happened to your wings?”

“Oh, we put them away.” Reggie says easily. He doesn’t seem to notice Luke’s mood, the effect it’s had on the now near-pitch black room, and babbles. “They’re nice like that. We only learned how to put them away recently, maybe ten years ago?”

“More like twenty.” Alex says, who was watching Luke wearily. “We did it after we landed; we thought it would make you more comfortable.” Ironically, he looks even more uncomfortable as he says this, and shifts his feet.

Julie balks. She’s stunned into silence by his appreciation for her comfort, by Luke’s inhuman darkness still permeating the edges of her skin, the summoning, _strangers_ and _demons_ and yet, deep down, Julie knows she’s made up her mind. Underneath the horns and wings, they were just three boys who needed a place to stay. Before she can overthink it, Julie blurts, “You can stay.”

“What?” Luke looks up so fast it almost makes Julie jump. Just like that, the room brightens. Luke’s excitement is almost blinding to look at, his eyes sparkling and light as he swings his way over to her. “Really?”

Julie nods, unable to stop a grin at his clear delight.

“Yes! Thank you!” Luke whoops, victorious, throwing himself on the couch. “Seriously awesome.”

“Thank you, Julie!” Reggie cheers, puppy-dog excited as he jumps around Luke; several pillows fall to the floor in the scuffle, and Alex quickly goes to retrieve them.

“You guys can sleep here, in the studio. There’s a bathroom, and a shower, if you need or use that kind of stuff,” Julie explains. She remembers what Luke mentioned about heat, and, judging by Reggie’s already-constructed pillow mountain, they’d need more cushions to survive the night. “There’s a cabinet filled with towels and blankets by the bathroom. Also, there might be some extra blankets upstairs.”

“Cool. And thank you so much.” Alex says.

“Yeah, thanks, Julie.” Luke calls.

“No problem.” Julie replies, stepping out of the studio to give them their privacy. She hopes she didn’t make a mistake letting them stay, and yet, a voice in the back of her head tells her this was a good idea.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Why doesn't Julie notice when they put away their wings, you ask? Answer: Shock! Her brain is receiving a crazy amount of new information (=demons are real), and only processes certain attributes at a time (=horns, but ignores the wings entirely) as a coping mechanism. Also, my demons have the ability to remove certain stimuli from human perception (=wings) to help the mind cope with their existence. Humanity isn’t meant to see the divine! And yes, in this fictional world, this is how my science works. No, I don’t care that you didn’t ask.


End file.
